Humour

Humour is universal. This I came to think of last week when we did lots of different corporate gigs. The audiences varied from young to not so young, from Finns, Swedes, Canadians, Turks to Germans and Brazilians, from leaders in high positions to people in not such high position, from big international companies to small Finnish companies, from big parties with 500 people to small ones with 40 people, from cocktail parties to a five-course dinner party.
The client is often concerned about that the audience wont understand our humour. Because they are from abroad. Or because they are not that international. Or because they are older. Or because they are rich or poor or whatever reason you can think of.

What we need to know before we make our list of song is - how long is the set? how big is the party? is the audience sitting or standing? how long has the party been going on before we perform?  The rest doesn´t matter. We don´t sing differently because the people in front of the stage are Italians. We have never experienced that our humour in the speaks between the songs would have to be different because of any of the reasons above.
We all basically laugh at the same things. Humour is universal.
But the sense of humour can vary quite a bit...

No humour in this picture. Only some serious rock-n-roll business going on.

The Crazy Brazilian

Back in Helsinki. Today we have the morning off and that means that Kasper is probably wall climbing, Anna is doing some dubbing for an animation, Jonte is working on some of the material from our upcoming new album, Greg is mixing that same material, Linda is writing one million e-mails and I am washing my clothes. And then later on today we will meet for sound check, make-up and gig. All fresh and new.

Today I want to introduce you to the Crazy Brazilian. The thing is that there are times when we are put in front of a camera, for a newspaper or just someone who wants our picture. And it´s not always the easiest thing to look natural and cool in a picture, especially backstage when you are kind of out of character. Sometimes the smiling just doesn´t come natural and we only look stiff and uncomfortable.

A friend of mine heard me complain about this and he introduced me to the Crazy Brazilian:
When you are in front of the camera, smile as much as you can, really feel the madness in the smile, it should even hurt a bit in your face if you are doing the smiling right. Feel like a crazy Brazilian. And in the picture it will look really natural and good. It is magic. Check out the pictures below: the first is just us trying to look nice, the second is the Crazy Brazilian.

                                                                 Normal.

                                                                 Crazy.

On the Road

This week we are doing five gigs in four different cities. So we are on the road. Monday started off with the great feeling of success - Finland did win the World Championship in Ice hockey! But after standing  in front of a microphone for four hours trying to record some intro music for the Edinburgh version of Pink Noise the feeling of success was long gone. Sometimes the most simple things can be so hard... In the picture you can see that I am really trying to get it right this time.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had concerts in Pargas, Finland. It´s the second time we visit this place and we love it. The audience was once again so friendly and warm, the stage is nice and the backstage is, well, small. Today we are moving on to Tampere, then Turku and on Saturday we are performing on the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki in front of 20 000 teenagers! I am very much looking forward to that even if someone (I will mention no names but he is French) decided that our sound check is at 7 a.m... It will be exciting!

                                              Greetings from Pargas backstage!

Happy People

This weekend we have been working but oh what a pleasure it has been! Friday started off with a delivery from Minttu - a bag full of goodies meaning new clothes for Anna and new shoes for me. And a note: Mia,  I know what you think about the shoes but just wear them! In the bag I found these wonderful black platform shoes with 15 cm heel... History has thought me one thing: don´t go into an argument with Minttu about clothes - she is always right.

In the evening we had a gig at DTM, I think the best place in Helsinki for club gigs. And it was crazy! Hot, sweaty and loud. Anna looked like a million dollars in her new clothes, Jonte almost didn´t make it back to the stage after his tour in the audience in Pokerface, Kasper was flirting heavily with the audience and they right back at him,  and I did not make a fool out of myself in my stilts. The audience was the greatest - loud, happy and dancing. At some point the screaming was reaching such decibels that it wasn´t safe to take out the ear monitors anymore. We Love That! 

                                           Happy people right after the DTM gig.

On Saturday we had a private gig. In our raider it says that the customer should provide the band with a meal. And oh what a meal! Sometimes it´s easy to forget that you actually are working...

Unfortunately our Paradise Oskar didn´t win the Eurovision contest but today, Sunday, I am holding my breath for the Finnish hockey team! Yes we can!

It´s Business time!

Some years ago we realized that we needed help. We had reached a point where we simply didn´t have time to rehears anymore. Instead we were getting late for meetings where stuff we really weren´t that comfortable talking about was to be discussed. Or then we were, twenty minutes before a show was about to start, desperately shopping for shoes that would be bearable to wear on stage but still look good. (the result of that you can see in my last post...)
So we understood that maybe there are people out there who can do these things better than we can. The Business people. The Marketing people. The Styling people. The Stage designing people.

For two days now I have been sitting in meetings. Because it´s not like we aren´t attending meetings anymore, we still are, who wouldn´t need our opinions...and I am totally exhausted. But still,  I have a feeling of ease because we have found those people, the people that needs to be in the Fork family to make things happen. Linda, Anna, Minttu, Tobias, Harry, Henrik, Mikko.

So I went happily back to rehearsals to once again feel the wonderful joy of singing, which BTW wasn´t happening today because we were so out of tune and no one had the energy to correct it in anyway, only giving each other the bad eye, like - why isn´t he listening to what I am trying to do here, come on, how hard can it be... - stuff.

                                                       The lovely duo - Linda and Anna.

First Who...Then What

First Who...then What. This I read in a book about how to create a successful business. If this is the case, we  had a great start. In June it will be 15 years ago since we sat down around a kitchen table and decided that we wanted to do something together. Didn´t really matter What it was, just something fun that involved music and wasn´t that serious.
It was definitely first Who.

The next thing the book says is Confront the Brutal Facts (yet never lose faith). Seven years ago when we  decided to leave all other jobs and only do Fork we were confronting the brutal facts. Very quickly we realized that making a living as a musician wasn´t necessary that easy, making a living as an a cappella musician was close to impossible. Close but not totally. The biggest challenge was, and still is, to get the message through about what we are doing. With some experience I can say that using the word a cappella isn´t always the fastest way to sell a good idea. For most people, at least seven years ago, a cappella was a group of people singing church music or a wilder version - five guys in suits singing woo-bop while snapping their fingers. Maybe one day a cappella will be explained like this: ..yeah it´s like four people in leather and cat suits singing cool songs while shaking their butts...
We are Confronting the Brutal Facts yet never loosing faith.

The last thing the book says is There is no Miracle Moment. At least so far I can agree on that.

In this picture I see no What, No Miracle and only Brutal Facts. At least in 2001 we were on our way to greatness!